Rights activists in Afghanistan fear that gains made in women's rights could be lost after international troops complete their withdrawal next year.

Since the fall of the Taliban regime as a result of the US-led invasion in 2001, the number of girls attending school in Afghanistan has risen to four million, and 41 female MPs were elected to the lower house of Afghanistan's parliament in 2010.

But activists, including the executive director of Research Institute for Women Peace and Security, Wazhma Frogh, fear that gains could be bartered away if the Karzai government holds peace talks with the Taliban.

"If we are not at the peace and reconciliation discussion, then what we have seen is that if we are physically not present in these discussions to reinforce and keep reminding them about our existence and our fears, then it is likely that there will be changes," Ms Frogh told Radio Australia.

Ms Frogh is part of an Afghan delegation in Canberra to lobby the Australian government to help protect women's rights in Afghanistan after the withdrawal.

"We urge the Australian government to use its position at the UN Security Council to look at the Afghanistan conflict as a regional dynamic," Ms Frogh said.